If consumers make a big shift to over-the-top programming or cord cutting, then telcos might find themselves at a loss, since all one needs for TV is the Internet. Cable companies seem to know this. So while the number of IPTV subscribers hit 50 million in the second quarter of this year, with most of those ascribed to telcos (most cable providers aren’t using IPTV), they are losing out on broadband subscribers. Cable providers now have a total of 100 million broadband subscribers and more than 65 million voice subscribers on their networks.

From the Telegeography report:

“Cablecos’ broadband and voice subscriber wins at the expense of telcos far outnumber their pay-TV subscriber losses due to IPTV, and ARPUs for both broadband and voice are more than double that of IPTV,” said TeleGeography’s John Dinsdale. “There are differences by region, but globally, cablecos’ expansion into telecoms markets has had a transformational impact on their growth and financial performance, while the impact of IPTV for telcos has been only marginal.”